Valour FC await well-rested Wanderers

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This article was published 27/08/2019 (2470 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

HFX Wanderers FC might be last in the Canadian Premier League’s fall standings, but Valour FC better not take them lightly when they meet tonight at 7 p.m. at IG Field.

The Halifax-based squad has struggled in the fall campaign with a 2-1-5 record, but when they play Valour, they look nothing like a team that sits at the bottom of the league’s table. The Wanderers are 4-1 against Valour this year, including a pair of wins against the Winnipeg club in their second-round matchup in the Canadian Championship in June.

For Valour (2-3-4), they’re coming off a disappointing 2-1 loss on Saturday in Victoria against Pacific FC. A win tonight would potentially catapult them into fourth place in the seven-team league’s fall season. But with a loss, Valour would once again find themselves in the basement, a spot they’re not unfamiliar with as they finished the 10-game spring season in last place with a 3-7-0 record.

With that said, the stakes are high for Valour tonight. Here’s five key storylines heading into the game.

What’s left in the tank after hectic August schedule

Tonight will be Valour’s sixth match in 25 days. They landed back in Winnipeg on Sunday, took Monday off and had one training session on Tuesday to prepare for the Wanderers. Halifax, on the other hand, has had a lot of time to think about tonight’s game. They haven’t played since Aug. 10, when they tied Cavalry FC 0-0 at home.

Despite all the games, Valour attacking midfielder Marco Bustos looks at the crazy schedule as a good thing.

“You know, I think we’re pretty used to it,” Bustos said following Tuesday’s practice session. “I think the good thing about the league is on the weekend, we had a tough loss there, but the best thing is that you bounce back to another game three or four days later. I think that’s the positive thing about the schedule is once one game is done, no matter the result, you got to focus on the next game right away and that’s what we’ve done.”

Young defender filling in for former captain

Halifax and Valour have met once during the fall season, with the Wanderers prevailing 1-0 at home on Aug. 5. The game was rather forgettable, but an incident late in the match involving Valour captain Jordan Murrell was memorable for all the wrong reasons. Murrell pushed referee Filip Dujic in the 89th minute and was immediately given a red card. Murrell walked off the field and kicked a scorer’s table and then bumped into a security guard before the Valour defender exited. Murrell was stripped of his captaincy by the team and slapped with a six-game suspension by the league.

Murrell had played every minute of every game for Valour at that point, leaving a big hole in the team’s defensive unit. With the veteran defender missing a big chunk of time, Valour coach and general manager Rob Gale signed 19-year-old Yohan Le Bourhis.

The young defender from Montreal was immediately used by Gale, as he made three starts before missing Saturday’s contest against Pacific with a groin injury. Gale has liked what he’s seen from Le Bourhis and he’s hopeful he’ll be ready to go tonight. But if Le Bourhis isn’t ready to return, Valour will be in trouble. They’re desperately lacking depth as the club recently lost Uruguayan defender Martín Arguiñarena for the season due to an ACL injury.

“I think he’s been excellent. Like I said before when we introduced him, he’s a player I know well,” Gale said. “He’s got all the qualities of a modern centre-back. He’s good with his feet, can move the ball, likes defending, good in the air (and) a decent one-versus-one defender.”

Home cookin’ shouldn’t hurt

The last time Valour took the pitch at IG Field, they had arguably their finest performance of the season, scoring three goals in the second half to defeat FC Edmonton 3-1 on Aug. 19. Their lone win against Halifax in five tries also came at home as they escaped with a 1-0 victory on May 11. Halifax has outscored Valour 5-1 in their three meetings at Wanderers Stadium, but Gale is hoping for a better result when the teams battle at IG Field.

“They don’t lose many games at home,” Gale said of Halifax’s 5-2-2 mark at Wanderers Stadium. “That’s the one thing they’ve got in their favour. I think all of us, as coaches behind the scenes, have yet to crack how best to travel to Halifax and feel ready.”

On the flip side of that, Halifax has struggled to pick up wins when they’re the ones packing their bags. They’re 0-4-0 in away games this fall campaign.

“We’ve got to make sure they continue their away-day blues and hopefully get back-to-back wins at home, which is our sole focus,” Gale said.

Janssens’ time

Valour’s young Belgian goalkeeper Mathias Janssens has shown flashes of brilliance this year, as he’s stopped two penalty kicks and leads the club with three clean sheets. But the 21-year-old has also struggled at times and has been prone to being caught out of position, which is exactly what happened on Saturday in Pacific’s game-tying goal. But with Winnipegger Tyson Farago out with a broken finger, now is the time for Janssens to cement himself as the team’s full-time starter moving forward if he can stay consistent.

“He’s a young lad, like many of our boys. And honestly, a goalie’s career can go up until they’re 40. So, he’s got many, many years ahead of him,” Gale said. “And it’s just developing every day. We see the growth in him. He’s getting a consistent run of games with Tyson out and he learns from every single game. I think if he makes a mistake, he’s the first to hold his hand up. But any goal you concede, there’s usually two or three or four errors as a coaching staff and as a team that we reflect back on. It’s a collective effort to help him grow.”

Canadian championship revenge

Valour’s dreams of going on a lengthy run in the Canadian Championship tournament came crashing down when Halifax beat them 4-1 on aggregate after two matches. The Wanderers would go on to lose 5-4 on aggregate against the Ottawa Fury of the United Soccer League in the third round. The Fury ended up losing 5-0 on aggregate to Major League Soccer’s Toronto FC in the semifinal.

Bustos said he believes Valour was the superior team in the series, but Halifax capitalized on their scoring chances and Valour couldn’t cash in on theirs.

“In my opinion, I feel like every time we’ve played them, we should have come away with three points, and the bare minimum a point,” Bustos said. “But they seem to beat us every time and, personally, it’s a big motivation for me, for us as an organization, as a club, to go out and beat them.”

taylor.allen@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @TaylorAllen31